Thomas Hooker Munich-Style Lager | Thomas Hooker Brewing Company

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Notes / Commercial Description:
A true Helles style, our lager is golden in color with a pleasant, malty aroma balanced by a rich, smooth flavor. Using only the finest Bavarian malts and finished with Saaz hops, one sip will make you feel like you're in one of Germany's finest beer gardens.

Appeared first in a flight glass, and then was selected for a full pint. It was actually an alternate choice in the flight of five samples- but lucky me they were sold out of the first choice. Was a nice golden/copper color with a medium bubbled head. Smell was like sticking my head in a bag of Munich malt grain. Sweet. My wife described it as sweet mulch smell which was right on the money. The taste was sweet and tasted exactly as I would expect a Munich Lager to taste. The after taste was amazing. I homebrew and like to taste the grains that I am using. This tasted-especially the aftertaste-like chewing on Munich grain. Wonderful Munich grain aftertaste. Did I mention the Munich grain aftertaste? Wow.

This is by far the best lager I have ever had. If you think lagers lack diversity and character, try this one. It will tear down ever preconceived notion of what a lager is and can be.

Pouring at room temperature into a tulip glass, it pours a golden copper color with very nice cascading, leaving a spongy white head about 1/2" tall. During dissipation it leaves nice edge lacing on the glass and a nice surface layer throughout the tasting.

Aroma is of some sweet apricots and vanilla malts with some earthy hops and grains- nothing spectacular though.

Taste is much better than aroma. Sweet apricot beginning with a grainy body that remains rather sweet. Some honey and nutmeg take this taste a long way!

A very smooth brew with relatively light carbonation. A well-balanced brew with not much bite and a slight wheaty finish.

Overall...very very drinkable...easy to consume and enjoy! Another nice brew from Troutbrook!

appearance: stright up orange with just enough carbonation shining through and a quickly dissolving head. this looks like something i'd refer to as 'beer juice'.

aroma: very buttery with malt backup and just enough roasted hop to accent the nose. nothing to strong, besides.. the beer is rather fresh and rather cold.

taste: hardcore roasty flavors.. smoky with malt and a great hops support. a great flavor is built here which peaks in a mouth-coating intensity. light body and a bit watery, but the munich possesses a david-like flavor that surprises those who order it expecting something more saccharine. watery isn't necessarily bad here, makes this beer more drinkable. hints of black pepper and licorice round this fine brew out.

This Munich Helles lager poured a slightly hazy, golden to pale amber color with tall, creamy, off-white foam that persisted and clung to the glass in clumps. The smell was hops and malt with a touch of biscuit and a light floral hop aroma. The taste was bready malt with a light sweetness. There was a touch of vinous Munich malt present. It had a mild hoppiness throughout with a bit of floral hops layered on. The mouthfeel was smooth and creamy with medium body and modest carbonation. The bready-malty flavor lingered a while in the aftertaste. This was a nice, smooth, easy drinking lager, and it invoked memories of Germany. Thanks to ErikTheRed for this bottle.

Thanks to kmpitz2 for sharing this one. Pours an orange color with a small head that dies off quickly and doesn't leave much lacing on the glass. The aroma has a clean caramel malt with some grassy hops. The flavor is much the same. Caramel malts with some grassy hops. Well balanced and smooth. Very clean finish. Good lager here.

Thanks to Kev (kmpitz2) for sharing this one. 22oz. bomber poured into a snifter. It pours a slightly hazy medium orange color with one finger of head. There is a decent amount of lacing. The smell is light and malty, with some classic light lager grassiness. The taste is slightly sweet, and has some honey characteristics to it. A bit of hop bitterness on the finish. The body is smooth and thick. The drinkability is great. This is a nice pleasant lager.

Thans to ppoirtas for this one. It pours a peachy orange color with a finger of head that falls to slightly coat the beer. The nose is caramel sweet and grassy. The flavor is not bad. The grassey/grainey tones are prevalent, but balanced with a caramel sweetness. The everpresent lager funk comes through as well. The feel is moderate, with enough carbonation to carry it through. Not bad at all for a lager. I find it refreshing.

Largely clear with a beautiful golden hue that lays a foundation that allows tawny-coppery influences to shine. There is plenty of animation noticed in the liquid. The head was white in color; at the apex the foam was slightly over two fingers in height. Head retention was fair; it faded quickly to a thin, soapy cap. This small cap did last for a while. There was no subsequent lacing. The appearance is average, on the whole. Sure the color is lovely but I want more to look at, if the head retention was better and there was some lace the appearance would be much improved. Oh well. It gets better from here! The nose is soft but ample in maltiness. There are kisses of toffee. I can easily notice whispers of herbal flowers. Caramel biscuits. Toasty. There are very weak, nondescript, fruity notes. The potency is moderate in potency but I really like what it says. Ghost suggestion of spiciness. Clean. This must be from Munich, CT. The nose is dead-on for the style. It is perfectly articulate. I do wish the bouquet had more liveliness though. It is extremely inviting! The palate is fantastic. Addicting. Liquid cocaine. This beer needs to come in liter(s) bottle because 22-ounces is not enough. I am drinking this faster than I can take write things down. I really dont even want to review this beer anymore; it is so dam tasty. I mean screw it. Really. Shit. Ill keep righting. The malt profile is perfect in this beer, it is sweet but wide and it encompasses soft caramel flavors and some toffee. There are hints of toasty biscuit with a whisper of honey. Sugar cookie. Toasted bread. Clean at the finish yet the aftertaste has some spicy hoppy notes. Damn this is good. It is simple but it is also everything I want with the style. Lovely. The mouthfeel is relaxing, a touch fuller then medium in body. The carbonation is on the low side but it is very fitting. Drinkability is perfect. I wish I had many more bottles. Wow, this beer is great. Id love to session with this beer. The complexity is low but the end result cant be ignored. Thanks UnionMade this beer was awesome.

Bomber bottle, pours light amber orange, mostly clear, some chill haze. White head, nice lacing going on. Nose is spicey and malt. Not real familiar with the style. Quite dry on the tongue, medium bodied. Notes of orange peel, pepper and some bready malt. Crisp, dry and refreshing. This brew is crying out for a nice salad and some cheese to mingle with. Another tasty concoction from Hooker.

Golden-orange with a smooth white head with decent stay and lace. Musty metallic aroma hints of herbal hallertau. Peppery, dusty, dry. Plums, a little orange, maple sugar. Flavor is less complex, involving mandarin oranges, honey (as seems to be a TH signature), and a pinch of pepper. Feel is too big and too sweet (which is rare for me to say). The carbonation is good, but I want this dryer, thinner, and crisper.

I guess I do not understand who would want a beer with heavy feel and light flavor. I would rather have the opposite. I am a malt man, but this needs more hops and less body to pull it off. This was a fine beer, but 22 oz. is enough for me.

Pours a pretty copper-amber with a small and active off white head. Little ring of lace is all that's left. Smells mildly citrusy and honey sweet. Tastes a lot more malty than I would've thought. Solid bit of caramel with a distinguished backbone of lemon and grass. Moderately thin like a lager should be. Easily drinkable and downright tasty.

clear, bright golden hue, massive slab of snow-white foam, swiftly dwindling down...aroma is slightly sweet, but balanced and dry, ultimately, lightly hoppy, floral, herbal, nice.
Taste: smooth, effortless, slick and wet, small texture, but altogether satisfactory. Small hoppy edge, adequate malt, ample taste, but perfectly drinkable. Light bodied, but not skinny in the flavor department, nor is it in any way outward or lush, no, it's just right...and I'm liking it more, as I finish it off!...slightly buttery-sweet, though, but I'm not knocking that...
I can easily see this as the good beer you can serve to your friends who normally choose a macro lager or some such, they'll either be impressed by the total package and wowed by the taste, or won't know the difference.
Haven't had a bad Hooker yet, and this continues that trend!

Crisp, lively and superbly balanced. An unexpectedly delicious session brew, since this isn't one of my favorite styles. I'm a huge hophead and tend to prefer bigger beers like barleywines, so why am I drooling over a light summer lager? I guess the moral here is that even an unexciting style, if brewed properly, can be outstanding.

This poured to a bright gold with a nice medium head that lasted very well. There's not much lace.

The smell was mediocre, consisting mostly of grains and light hops. It seems a little off. The taste is a bit better, being crisp and bright with a touch of honey. The mouthfeel is good and clean while the drinkability is very good.

Perfect shade of gold. A deep shade. Very slight haze is noted. It's kind of like looking at the sun on a hot and very hummid day. Nice stream of CO2 rising at a moderate pace. Decent crop of bone white head with good retention. Lace is adequate. Aroma seems sweet. Like hayfields. And candy. And yeast. And grains. The mouthfeel is full and round. The body is damn near full. Quite nice. And just the right amount of prickly carbonation. Flavor is quite bready. Nice yeast contributions. Sweetness is subdued, but present. And just a little snap of bitterness. Quite tasty. And quite drinkable as well. pbrian predicted that this growler wouldn't last an hour for me. Well it did, but not by much.

This beer pours golden/amber with a 2 finger head and some moderate lacing. The aroma is of roasted malts with hints of some floral grassy hops. The initial taste is sightly hoppy but soon the sweet malty character takes over and it finishes off with a spicy hop bitterness that I didn't expect. The beer is medium bodied, clean, crisp and very drinkable.

Reflection: This is my first beer from the Troutbrook brewing company and I thought it was excellent! I will be this one onto my friends and family.

A very nice, crisp beer, perhaps a little more in line with a North American blonde ale than others in the style. Nice interplay of malt - barely to the sweet side with a touch of clover honey. Just the slightest hint of some orchard fruit - somewhat tart up front.

This is a very good helles lager. Pours golden honey color with 4 finger head in my Lowenbrau 0.5L stange. The aromas are like crisp dry fall day in the woods. The taste is clean, bright malt with a slight nutty grain undertoe. Dry finishing beer that strikes a super balance between the sweet malt flavors and the noble hops. This is a beer that goes down well one after the other.

Well, I'm down to my last bottle out of a case, so it's time to write a review.
The beer pours into a 23oz hefe-style glass a rich, burnished gold. An energized plume of ivory froth billows up on a gentle pour, creating a gorgeous crown reaching about an inch above the glass. Great clarity, a reverse rainstorm of carbonation rising to feed the head. Head retention is fantastic, with a solid sheet of lace clinging in it's wake. If this isn't the most perfect presentation on a beer, I don't know what is.
The aroma is pretty spot on for the style. Toasty, cake dough sweetness flecked with a soft, floral noble hopping. Perhaps a pinch of saaz spiciness. Very, very clean, with the distinct signature of munich malt. A slight grainy touch abrades the malt like a 220 grit sandpaper.
The flavor starts out squeaky clean, the malt allowed an open road to travel. Cake or sugar cookie sweetness, toasted at one on the dial....maybe two. A ghost of peach esters, perhaps some grassy notes mingling with the incoming hops, moving directly into a mildly hopped finish. Just a slight bitterness, enough to balance, contributing to the flavor with a bright floral tone. The aftertaste snaps off pretty clean, just a slight residual munich malt graininess. Medium to light bodied with that signature Paul Davis microscopically fine-yet-spritzy carbonation. An excellent mouthfeel with a snappy crispness in the finish. My only complaint is that it gets so dry in the finish after about half the beer that my tongue starts to feel rough.
This is really a soft, subtle session bier masterpiece. It's certainly no monster, and won't flood your palate with flavor, but for a normal strength beer, I'm having a hard time thinking of stuff I'd rather drink. It blows my mind that this is brewed in my home state. This is the kind of stuff better suited for sale in the tapered 500ml bottle with lots of german text. Very, very authentic, probably what it's like to go to Munich and drink helles bier from the source. I count myself lucky to have Paul Davis and the folks at Thomas Hooker making beer only 20 minutes away. One hell of a summer beer, and a different style for a change. If you're in Connecticut for the summer, do yourself a favor and buy a few bottles for you and your friends. Very Highly recommended.

Smell: Sour apples, pale malts and a faint bits of floral hops and lime. Very German, authentic aromas. Maybe the best smelling lager ever. I wanted to dive right into the glass.

Taste/Mouthfeel/Drinkability: All at once, crisp sour apples and a touch of spice wrapped in sweet malt, followed by a very mild bitterness and then a sweet malty finish. Very carbonated, light to medium bodied but amazingly smooth and creamy. Taste was extremely fresh, clean and invigorating. Easily the best lager I've had to date. This is easily something worth stocking up on for frequent enjoyment. Must be nice to live in CT. Great, great stuff. Thanks again to UnionMade for the opportunity.

Appearance  The truth in advertising award goes to Thomas Hooker Munich Style Golden Lager. This beer is as gold as an Oscar, with a fluffy and creamy white head, and as bubbly as victory champagne.

Smell  mild yeast notes are present and light hops play hide-and-seek in the background.

Taste  Apples and honey are balanced by a late arriving hops presence.

Mouthfeel  Very smooth. A spark to the tip of the tongue accompanies the medium-body of the lager.

Drinkability  This beer would be a great beer to drink with friends, or anywhere in which you dont want to think about the beer your drinking. Its an unassuming beer, one that would win best supporting actor, not best lead actor.

This bomber came to me courtesy of BeerAdvocate spritdeus via a trade. After poring, the beer revealed a clear golden colored body, and a two inch tall foamy off white head. The aroma was clean with honey like pilsner malt, and faint florally grassy hops. The taste was malt driven, with a sweet honeysuckle flavor and very mild hop bitterness. The mouthfeel was creamy and soothing with a medium thick body. This style is supposed to be difficult to pull off as there is no way to hide any off flavors. And Troutbook is clearly at the top of their game, as they have brewed a beer that does not possess any off flavors that would need hiding.